How Many Ethical Rules Did Fani Willis Break and Still Keep Her Job? The List Is Long

"The most insidious power the media has is the power to ignore," says radio and TV host Chris Plante. Though viewer and readership rates have plummeted it's still true that if corporate media don't report a story or choose to elide certain facts, millions of Americans will never know. Indeed, they wouldn't only be misinformed, they'd be mal-informed. For example, millions of people have no idea of the skullduggery and unethical behavior displayed by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in her prosecution of former President Trump and 18 others in an alleged "election obstruction" RICO case. Friday, a judge gave the elected DA her professional life back by giving her a choice to fire herself or her erstwhile boyfriend from the case. She chose to save herself. The case goes on.

There were serious allegations, arguments, and facts that Judge Scott McAfee had to ignore or militate against to come to this hackneyed ruling. As lawyer and social media legal resource, TechnoFog, put it, "Judge McAfee rules that only one potential liar can prosecute the case – but not both potential liars."

Or, as I wrote Friday after the ruling, in a piece called "Fani Willis Judge: Sure, There Was Lying, Conflict, 'Odor of Mendacity,' but Hey, It Could be Worse": 

Put another way, the judge said there wasn't enough evidence of booty calls, trysts, lying on the stand, and other egregious behavior to form actual conflict of interest. Apparently, there was lots of smoke, maybe a few flames, but, in the end, there was no actual O.J. video of the conflagration, so no proof. He didn't say the part about the O.J. video, but that seemed to be the standard of proof required by the jury in the O.J. Simpson case, so I used that term. It seems to apply to the judge here. 

The hearing to determine whether Willis would be thrown off the case was televised, to be sure, but I got a message on Friday from a smart friend of mine, an author who keeps tabs on the world, who had only just seen the video of the proceeding. He was stunned when he heard the defense lawyers list allegations of wrongdoing for which they'd provided evidence. The list was so overwhelming it sounded like a couple of guys going through The Dozens of "yo mama so fat" jokes. 

       Related: Fani Willis Judge: Sure, There Was Lying, Conflict, 'Odor of Mendacity,' but Hey, It Could be Worse

And so, in no particular order, here's a bill of particulars by the defense against Fani Willis and her now former very special prosecutor, Nathan Wade. Tell me if you don't think this reads like a "your DA so crooked" version of The Dozens:

• Fani Willis is so crooked she ignored her prosecutor's oath to act impartially out of "political ambition"
• Fani Willis is so crooked she broke her oath not take any money beyond her salary
• Fani Willis is so crooked her affair with her very special prosecutor is a conflict of interest 
• Starting her affair was the "original sin" leading them to "perpetuate and conceal" their relationship
• Fani Willis is so crooked she got her office to lie for her about her affair
• Fani Willis's Church Speech was meant to inject alleged racism "to deflect against her own misconduct" 
• Fani's very special prosecutor lied in his divorce documents and to the court about the nature of their relationship
• Fani and her very special prosecutor's Biden White House meetings and communications are believed to be legal strategy sessions in coordination and haven't been fully explained 
• Fani is so crooked she filed a protective order against the very special prosecutor's wife in his divorce case 
• Fani is so crooked her office put people on the stand they knew would lie
• Fani is so crooked she broke the local ordinance about receiving gifts from contractors
• She broke the federal bribery statute by receiving gifts of more than $5,000
• Fani's office is so crooked they never provided evidence to the contrary about the boss's "invisible magic cash balancing" theory
• Fani wrote a book using secret grand jury testimony, documents, and recordings upon which she based her book, but denied a defense motion to see them
• Fani failed to disclose the gifts from her very special prosecutor as the law requires
• Fani lied on her disclosure forms to the county and state to evade detection of her affair
• Fani never got required county approval to name her boyfriend to the case
• Fani's very special prosecutor "got on the stand and lied about lying in his interrogatories" about his divorce
• Fani and her office "did nothing to correct obviously perjured testimony" 
• Fani violated her obligation as a prosecutor to serve her personal interests
• Fani violated rules of professional conduct when she threatened to criminally charge her very special prosecutor's wife "to gain advantage in a civil case" (his divorce proceedings)
• Fani's prosecutors were directed to hide the affair during the hearing by objecting on attorney-client privilege grounds on behalf of very special prosecutor Nathan Wade when they weren't their rights to assert

One sly commenter noted on my piece yesterday, "the case against Fani was stronger than the one she has against Trump."

We'll probably never know.